A step in the right direction to nourish little one

‘Motherhood is a choice; a choice to love selflessly and keep the child’s needs above all’

Being a mother, the struggle of pain reaches maximum while parturition. The labour is excruciating, only to be compensated by a healthy child being brought into the world. But for some mothers, the pain might just not end here.

Feeding colostrum or the first milk rich in antibodies can cause severe breast pain. So much so, that the new mothers suffer trauma of breast feeding and may have to be pumped out by a nurse and then use the expressed milk to feed the child. Ouch?

Breast pain during lactation can be due to sore nipples, plugged milk ducts or mastitis, engorgement (breasts being full of milk) etc. A mother having any such conditions may develop a fear of breastfeeding. But hey, your newborn can’t eat any solid food and you need to feed him every time. There is no way out. 

Here are a few tips that you can use to prepare yourself to continue feeding your child post the first traumatic experience:

1. Position: Breastfeeding the child while its mouth is wide open, abdomen aligned to yours and head on your breast is important. Latch the baby. Wrong position and nursing can cause nipples to stretch and hurt.
2. Engorgement: Make sure that your baby is feeding properly at regular intervals, at least 8-12 times a day. This unloads the breast and reduces pain. Hand expression at times or cool/hot pad treatments also help.
3. Plugged ducts/mastitis: Take hot showers to unblock any blocked milk duct. In case of infection in milk ducts leading to mastitis, talk to your doctor. He may start you on medications.
4. Sometimes women with sunken nipples or non-erect nipples have pain while the baby nurses. Hand expression/pump expression can gradually accustom the nipples for conventional feed. You can use handpumps to take the milk out if conventional feeding is causing pain.
5. Most importantly, the mother should be emotionally strong to feed again post a traumatic/hurtful first experience. The baby is totally dependent on you for it.

Be a strong mama bear!